


Chimera

by se_lai



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dalish Elves, Dalish Issues, Developing Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Inquisitor & Dorian Pavus Friendship, Varric Tethras is a Good Friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 08:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19081453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/se_lai/pseuds/se_lai
Summary: A. k. a. "How to get away with an average quest".This is the first time Cullen travels with the Inquisitor with no troops to lead. Even if thisisstill a quest, it will be their first time alone with friends. Their relationship is barely established, this is a first time, yet the Inquisitor has some issues on her own: trapped between the human and the Dalish world, she has always something to prove. Maybe the ordinary world outside Skyhold is too much for them.





	1. Before starting: identify the issue

**Author's Note:**

> I love to explore cultural differences between Dalish and humans, that is where all this came from.  
> I wrote this fic some time ago, hope you like it. I'll update it entirely through the week ~

“We are leaving Skyhold at once!”  
Cullen heard the distant laugh of Leliana at his a-little-too-enthusiastic command, riding with her spies before them. The plan was to let the Nightingale, and the Nightingale’s eyes, take advantage and scout the field before them. Hardings will have the report ready by the time the Inquisitor, the commander, his small troop and the three companions of the Inquisitor finally arrived at the mission. The templars of that region were not red, simply rogue. But they were far better organized than the usual, they were creating an army opposed to the Inquisition with growing local support and they had to be stopped before the word spread too far.  
This was the first time Cullen went at field with the Inquisitor. Not with different tasks or with such a hurry they will meet for a second, meet each other eyes with hidden tenderness and, then, all was settled. This was a slower operation. This was both of them at action together.  
Their first day was the hardest. They had to ride, or walk for those who didn’t want the horses, for many miles, almost the whole day. Then, they slept on the floor. Some of them made guard. Chaos and movement all over, and Cullen didn’t even had the time to think about anything else than the next command or the weak point where an attack could arrive. When night fell, he was too tired to do other than go to rest.  
He was asleep when he felt the touch of a soft skin and leather pressing against him. He opened his eyes in the deep darkness and even there Cullen recognized the gaze looking at him, mischievously.  
“Inquisitor”.  
“Is this always your reaction when someone touches you in the dark in the middle of an expedition?” she feigned indifference. He smiled in the dark.  
“It depends. Which one, calling the Inquisitor Inquisitor?”  
“Opening your eyes and smiling dumbly to the dark without moving an inch apart from whoever is touching you”.  
Cullen let out a laugh he couldn’t suppress and pressed his forehead against hers. He had found out that was his most cherished moment in the whole world now.  
“Is there something going on between you and your soldiers I should know?” she went on, rubbing her fingers in his hair. Her voice had softened, no trace of mocking now.  
“Nothing that makes me miss you any less.”  
She couldn’t hold her laughter. With that, yes, someone of the guard finally reacted and came to his place.  
“Commander? Is everything alright?”  
He pretended to be asleep and opened his annoyed eyes. The light of the guard’s torch illuminated the surroundings. He hoped to spot a silhouette, a black shadow moving away, but not even that was to be seen.  
“Y-yes, nothing strange here” he answered, a little too late, and the guard went away unconvinced.

  
Hardings was already waiting for them in the new camp. She greeted the Inquisitor first, smiling, and then she went firm when she laid her eyes upon the Commander.  
“Commander Cullen! I-I didn’t expect you...”  
Assan had turned to see what had made Hardings look that worried. Cullen saw how she tried to hide her smile.  
“We, we didn’t even build a tent for you...”  
“Don’t worry about that, Hardings” Assan spoke softly and calmly, and despite that Cullen could hear a subtle, mischievous promise beneath her words. “We’ll think of something. Later”.  
Assan felt a gaze upon her skin, an inquisitive one. Varric. Or Dorian. Or more likely, Varric and Dorian, probably hearing what she really meant way better than the naïf Cullen himself.  
“But... where are your soldiers?”  
Cullen took a step forward and cleared his throat.  
“They will join us later”.  
“They have to pretend to be the vanguard of our army, so the templars won’t look for us”. Assan remembered the plan out loud. “Cullen comes with us as a templar advisor. His men have their own task”.  
“I am no different than any of the Inquisitor’s companions.” he remembered he was too impressive, sometimes, so he remembered to smile. “Don’t treat me any special.”  
He could feel Dorian and Varric plotting against him already. He suppressed a sigh and hold his smile for Hardings.  
“Okay.” Hardings sounded unconvinced but turned to her maps anyway. “This is a map of the whole area where Darkspawns have been spotted”.  
Hardings pinpointed the red circles marked in the area. They surrounded an area in the middle of a forest. That was, allegedly, the source. Assan studied the map closely with narrowed eyes.  
“Sadly, the templars have managed to use this to strengthen their position in the area. People are afraid.”  
“Even with Corypheus, they are quite a problem” Cullen sighed, worried. “If only people didn’t let their fear mute the voice of reason”.  
“So we assume that, since templars appear in an area where Darkspawns are spotted, there must be an entrance to the Deep Roads somewhere in the marked area where they can gather their lyrium, is that right?” Cassandra looked at Hardings after her recap, and the dwarf nodded.  
Assan pointed to the map, barely listening to any of them.  
“Since we are the strongest force in the near area, we will be dealing with this, instead of the Grey Wardens. We may not be immune to the Blight, but we know how to deal with the rogue templars. Even if not red, these doesn’t seem to be regular templars. I think we better leave the Wardens out for this one”.  
“They have done enough harm already” spited out Varric. Cassandra glazed at him.  
“This should have been their chance to prove the world they want to do things right. Again”.  
“Right, but their numbers are too low and Weisshaupt remains silent.” Assan’s voice was a little louder than theirs, so they will shut up. She didn’t do that at first. Apparently, she had learned to be somehow a leader. Or to keep peace at least.  
“Do you have a plan, almighty Inquisitor?”  
Dorian’s voice was always mocking, but this time a subtle hint sounded serious. Assan nodded without lifting her eyes from the map.


	2. First part: befriend the local population

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As we all know, the first part of every plan is to make friends! Sidequests! Whatever bizarre thing some random citize asks! Yet it wouldn't be an Inquisition's plan if there weren't any issues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Go and try to explain someone why finding a stray bear is so important for saving the world, Cass. Go and try.

The first thing to stop the templars war being attractive was to show what the Inquisition actually could do. Cullen understood that.  
Yet he wasn’t so convinced when he heard the request from the villagers, a mixture of avvar and ferelden population.  
“So the avvar have a sacred beast”.  
Cassandra seemed to be having fun at his annoyance, at least.  
“It appears so, yes.”  
“Which has disappeared”.  
“So they claim”.  
“And the Inquisition will retrieve it and bring it back safe home”.  
“So said the Inquisitor.”  
Cullen glared at her, still walking.  
“You are having fun, aren’t you.”  
Cassandra let out a brief laughter. Assan turn towards them at the noise, then recognized what it was. She smiled briefly and turned against towards Varric, who was telling her another unbelievable tale.  
“You have seen requests like this at the war table countless times before”.  
“To be honest, I was quite convinced the Inquisitor was making out half of them”.  
Cassandra smiled amused, but then went half serious. She was staring at the Inquisitor, at her back walking ahead of them.  
“This is part of the field work, Cullen. It really is.”  
“How?”  
Cassandra paused.  
“At first, I found it hard to believe myself. Petting wild animals, find someone clearly dead by now, arranging their next commercial trade, all that seemed so... mundane. The world was asunder and a fake God was ascending, and our Herald just... made errands”.  
Cullen let Cassandra talk slowly, as if she was retrieving one by one the little pieces of the whole puzzle.  
“But then I saw the effect. This is good, Cullen, what we do. We help people. We help them go back to their lives, survive, have little victories in this chaos. We help them regain hope. One day, that will pay priceless.”  
The cave appeared in front of them. It was high enough to them to go in, so the beast may have gone inside as well. A hunter claimed to have witnessed the beast vanishing in the middle of nowhere. It had to be something like that. So all of them went inside the cave, with the Inquisitor leading the way with a small fireball in her hand.  
“There it is” she whispered all of a sudden and hurried. The rest of the group was left in the darkness. All they could hear for a second was two hands reaching a sword and a crossbow’s mechanism.  
“Do you mind, Sparkles?” whispered Varric’s voice.  
“For the Maker’s...!” Dorian grumbled, but the cave lighten up all the same. “What would you do without us.”  
Then a beast roared.  
The four of them hurried ahead. The passage was narrow and the stone was cold as hell. The mist of their breathings and the surrounding darkness made it almost impossible to see. So when Dorian saw the Inquisitor he almost stumbled upon her. She made them signs to stop.  
Her light illuminated the small beast, pressing its tiny body against the rock, still pathetically roaring with no echo to amplify its little noises. Because they were little. It was little.  
The little wyvern cried out. The screams were different. It was a cry for help. For a moment all of them froze, listening, but nothing came.  
“If a mummy dragon arrives I swear I’ll run faster than any of you, so you better start taking advantage” Varric spited out, holding Bianca firmly.  
Cassandra had her back against Cullen’s, both of them looking around constantly. The staff Dorian held sparkled so brightfully the little wyvern’s eyes shone in the same electric blue.  
“You keep talking that way, Varric. I am sure this little, petty monster will appreciate” said Dorian happily.  
Assan started to mumble as she approached the creature, slowly.  
Cullen couldn’t make out what she was saying at first. Then he realized she spoke elven.  
She was whispering, and the wyvern fixed her. Then it went silent, as if her saying could be more important than its unanswered calling. It worked.  
Surely it was not a matter of tongue, but of voice and gestures, but the little wyvern relaxed a little. She smiled, completely absent, her eyes locked on the dragon and her lips speaking their tongue by themselves. She approached ever so slowly. Varric pressed his finger against Bianca’s trigger, ready to see the jaws closing around the Inquisitor’s finger. Maybe that would be a perfect twist in one of his stories, but in real life the wyvern couldn’t resist the magnetism, hypnotized. Assan reached it. And then she started to pet it, itching the back of its head.  
“No way, Inquisitor.” Varric snorted. The noise made the wyvern narrow its eyes, suspicious. “Does your mom knows you touch ani... creatures you don’t know the owner!”  
“You better wash properly before caressing other things” Dorian added. Cullen coughed unwillingly.  
Then Assan showed to it the blanket the village have given them, the wyvern purred and jumped into it.  
“Impressive. I’ll give you that, Inquisitor.” Cassandra sighed as she sheathed back her sword. Varric smirked at her remark, but her glare stopped him from adding anything else.  
“Can you carry it, Assan?” Cullen took a step towards her and the wyvern hissed in her arms.  
“Ir... Yes, yes, I can” she laughed briefly as the wyvern reached her shoulder and stood there, alert. “It weighs like a horse, or like two, but let’s keep moving”.  
“Let’s just hope carrying their sacred beast like a parrot is not heretic to our kind avvar friends” Dorian leaded the way.


	3. Second part: destroy the lyrium supplies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. A typical day at the Inquisition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With increased rate of dumbasses and a rolling-eyes Inquisitor. Also Dalish, Elvish _and_ some good ol', classical fight.

Nightingale's eyes proved as effective as always. By the second day, Harding already had located the place where the lyrium was brought to the templars.  
“I hope none of you is afraid of heights” she added during the morning meeting, showin them the improved map. “I hear there are very serious slopes”.  
“Great, Harding. Now you almost make me miss Orzammar”. Varric groaned, looking at the marks on the map.  
It would only be the five of them, Varric, Dorian, Cassandra, Cullen and Assan. Otherwise, they could be easily spotted. This had to be secret. The Inquisition must know the supplies were destroyed before the templars could notice. Or they’d fly away.  
That was the first time Cullen saw the transformation.  
For the first time, they were not near a village, or carefully spotting a little monster through a cave, or surrounded by soldiers. There were only them and the fields, the hills, the mountains and the forest. Nothing to look for yet and, at least in theory, nothing special to fear. And Assan was different.  
She leaded the way, scouting the field with her years of elven training. It was just easier for her than for all the others to notice any sign. But, even at the distance, the change was obvious.  
She moved differently, as if her staff weighed nothing. Her feet were just friends with the grass and its gentle touch. Her colourful, splarkly eyes were not repressed by the people and their hopes on her. This was the world lifting its weight off her shoulders. This was only her and four friends alongside her. So simple. That free.  
“Curlies, your jaw will break if you keep your mouth like that for too long”. Varric laughed loudly. Cullen blushed.  
“I am not used to see her in... like...”  
He lost the thread of his words. Speaking of seeing her, she was nowhere to be seen. Cullen moved his hand towards his sword, silently alert, then heard the movement from a tree and at the next moment Assan reappeared, standing in front of the little group, removing some branches from her hair.  
“I saw a clearing in the trees. The thaig’s entrance is just ahead”. She smiled when she started to move, seing the exhaustion on their eyes. “It’s really close”.  
“Elven “close”, or human “close”? I need to know” Cassandra sighed, snd the Inquisitor answered only with a laugh, already moving.

* * *

Dorian and Assan held hands, pointed their fingers to the entrance and a smell of smoke poured into the air. And the stones shook, shivered, timidly at first. The noise under the ground became a roar. The earth trembled, crawling as if hurt, but only for a second. The entrance collapsed. Then there only was silence.  
Then the elves appeared.  
Assan fell to the floor the first one, but half a second later dark silhouttes appeared out of nowhere and knocked down all of them. Cullen could feel the iron, the blade near his throat, and elven cries. A voice arose upon all of them.  
“Touch them and I’ll slay you all.” Assan yelled.  
And then, the glow.  
The green glow. Cullen felt a shiver on his spine, the horror of the elves, the vallaslin on all their faces reflecting the color.  
An elf walked towards them. Maker, how old he could be. If they had told them he had witnessed the fall of the Dales first hand, Cullen would believe.  
Assan was still under the two elves. The old elf ignored her. He approached Cullen. The ancient elf kneeled down near him and took the knife from the hands of his companion. Then she yelled again, trying to shaking them off.  
“Don’t you dare touch them!”  
The elf looked at her, a satisfied look on his wild eyes, as if he had suspected that reaction.  
“Garas quenathra?” he finally spoke to her. She clenched her jaw.  
At that, the elf slid the blade on Cullen’s neck. A thread of blood run down his chest.  
The elf looked at her again, deadly serious.  
“What is the shemlen to you, da’len?”  
“Ma venhan.” she said, without hesitation. Even with her face to the ground under two people, she managed to look enraged. And dangerous. “Release him, all of them.”  
Then the Anchor glowed more, and a rift.  
A rift opened out of nowhere with a crack.  
Assan jumped out of her captors reach, her fingers glew fiercely and fire lit the air. Cullen closed his eyes, blinded by the smoke. Then she kneeled down Cullen and held his hand.  
“I am fine, I am fine” he reassured her. She smiled, relieved, and then turn towards the rift she had opened herself to free them. Cassandra was already advancing, her sword fighting fiercely her captos, so Cullen did the same. Dorian stood at the opposite side of the little battlefield, the small clairing, and Varric had Bianca firing a long time ago. The demons were already coming out of the rift, they could clearly feel the chills in the air, the vibration, the Fade tickling. The few elves that were still fighting were trying to retreat, but they were attacking at the same time. They had to protect Assan so she could close the rift before the demons finished reaching their world, but the time was running out.  
The old elf was the only one not retreating. He looked at them, a dismissive look in his big eyes.  
“Ar lasa mala revas.”  
Assan’s arm was trembling, trying to subdue the rift and not be overcome by the whispers of the demons in the air. She glared at him anyway.  
“Fen’Harel ma halam!” she yelled. There was hatred in her words, but the old elf seemed delighted by her words.  
“You could have been much more, da’len. You could have lead Dalish to a new world. Now you are nothing but a chimera between worlds”.  
Bianca’s arrow whistled in the air. It got lost in the empty air, where no elves were to be seen.  
“Ups, sorry. Bianca has better stories to witness than that” Varric said while the first demons appeared.  
And Assan extended her marked arm towards the rift, they glew in harmony, the rift disappeard in the air, and for a moment she seemed so unhuman. And Assan fell to her knees.  
Cullen took a worried step and Cassandra held him right away, as if she had always waited for that response.  
“She will be alright, Cullen. But her body is filled with magic now. Better not touch her” she advised.  
Dorian stood next to her until she sighed. The pain faded, and then he lend her his hand. She tried to apologize with a smile.  
“I am fine.” she looked around, as if to see where the gloomy mood was coming from. Then she shook her head.  
“Let’s go back to the camp”. Cullen smiled back at her, even if too briefly. “We all should rest”.  
“No objections there, Curlies” Varric sounded relaxed, but he didn’t put Bianca away, not for a moment. “Nothing that makes me miss Orzammar even slightly is a good thing. Ever”.

* * *

Next, the humans appeared.  
They were already near the camp. They barely talked to each other– they all fell gloomy, and tired of the intense fight. They were even going by the path, where they were more exposed to attacks, but it was faster and Assan looked like she could really use some rest. So they tensed, but didn’t leave the path when the humans approached.  
Their uniforms gave them away. Academic humans, come to see the newly found thaig. News spread fast. Assan stopped and told them with a frown the thaig had dissappeared now. Which didn’t make them happy at all. They started to raise their voices, all of them sounded exactly the same in complaints they couldn’t answer properly. That made them angrier. Assan tried to explain, with little success.  
“You could try going through the Deep Roads, after all. There are plenty of other entries” Varric advised, Cassandra punched him, but he continued nevertheless. “I am quite sure the Darkspawns can find a way to anywhere if you let them long enough”.  
The scholars decided they will never get the location from them, so they turned away. One of them with Ferelden accent looked at them despisefuly and Assan reacted before anyone else could. Because she knew he would say something harsh and Dorian, Varric or even worse, Cullen could react. And there could be blood.  
“If you have any problem with that, the Inquisition will be pleased to count with your help the next time we stop any Darkspawns coming to the surface. And Orzammar as well”.  
That was too much for the human. He approached her, and Assan glared at him unconcerned.  
“You Inquisition?” he spit. “Don’t make me laugh. An apostate, and what’s more, A halla–rider.”  
“Jealous?” she smiled, fiercely, the tips of her fingers already brightful with magic.  
The other humans called for him, uneasy, and he turn his back and went away.

* * *

Assan took another sip, a little too lost in thought.  
“And he called you what?” Harding seemed amused at least with the story. That made Assan smile a little in the darkness of the night, her face barely visible by the bonfire.  
“ Halla–rider. As an insult. Humans’ imagination might never stope amusing me.” she raised her glass, paused for a moment. “I’ll rephrase. May humans’ imagination never cease to amuse me”.  
She toasted with Harding and took a long drink.  
“You sure he was trying to insult you?” Harding’s naivety made her laugh.  
“For the Dread Wolf I am sure.” she sighed. Then she tilted her head, thinking. “Halla–rider. My smell alone would make hallas go kilometres away before they could even listen to my elven” she laughed bitterly.  
“With that human accent you got they may not even understand.”  
Assan let out a sudden laughter.  
“But, you know, Inquisitor, you sound much more elven”.  
“When?”  
“Whenever we are out”.  
Out, as opposite to in, to Skyhold. To walls and stone. Harding was just like her about that. They would simply wither if not exposed to the outside.  
“I am not sure that is a compliment.”  
“I should have known four siblings will make you a good sneaker”.  
Cassandra’s voice almost stopped his heart. Cullen was grateful it was dark, so she couldn’t see his cheeks flushing. He stepped away of the tree he was leaning on while listening to their talk.  
“I was just thinking...” Cassandra raised a single eyebrow. Cullen couldn’t help to look at them again. She hadn’t sneak again to see him, not since the departure. That worried him, but that wasn’t all. They were talking again, but the atmosphere remained the same, cheerful and sad at the same time. There was something on her aura... something that made him uneasy.  
“This is the first time I see her out of Skyhold, alone, without tropes, I mean.” He finally spouted the words. Cassandra seemed to relax a little.  
“Oh. I see.” she did seem to understand as she smiled.  
“She is so... I don’t want to use the word elven, that’s not it. She is so different. She looks like a different whole person.”  
A chimera trapped between two worlds.  
“She is impressive.” Cassandra nodded. Cullen glanced at them one last time and then walked away.  
“That she is.”  
“Do you want a drink, Cullen? I believe you could use it” Cassandra smirked. “Maybe we can even catch Dorian and Varric’s play. I hear their game is one of your favorites”.  
“Maker’s Breath!” he sighed.  
“No, not that one. I think I recall its name included the word wicked “.  
“You enjoy this a little too much, you know”.  
 


	4. Third part: strike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, all preparations finished, it's time to give the final blow.

They approached the walls before the dawn of the third day.   
The last part of their plan was the direct strike. Cullen’s troops would attack upfront the small fortress. Then, the Inquisitor and their group would sneak in and open the front doors for them. That attack should force them to retreat. With the lyrium supply cut off and the villagers now trusting the Inquisition, the templars would have to surrender.   
The five of them were in position, waiting for Harding. Things were tense. The front attack had already started and Cullen looked like a caged lion, hearing his troops fighting without him. And Harding finally arrived. Late.   
“We... have a problem.” she stood there, just a little taller than the humans kneeled, behind the shrubs so no one in the fortress would spot them. “The scout who was supposed to climb the gates is hurt. On an ankle. For being so stupid that she decided to try to... Never mind” she bit her lip, nervous. All of them looked at the gates on that wall, much less impressive than the front ones, but closed all the same.  
“So the Inquisition soldiers are already fighting in the front so we can attack in their backs and the person who can climb the walls and open those emergency gates for us was too stupid to be here” Varric summed up. “And so we fail because no one could open the lock in our perfect plan”.   
“Yes, that’s it”.   
“That’s too dumb even for me to fix when writing it” Varric frowned.   
“I can climb” Assan suggested.   
All heads turned towards her.   
“You what?” said Cassandra. She run a hand through her hair, studying the walls.  
“You have seen me climbing trees. I a... was dalish. We are used to ride things.” she smiled slightly “Some of them even move more than a wall”.   
“Will that suit your tales, Varric?” Dorian turned towards the dwarf, who bursted into laughs.   
“Actually that would suit it, yes”.   
“Are you sure, Inquisitor?” Cullen stood all their gazes, without a expression. “These walls are quite high.”   
She lend him her staff.   
“So are the Korcari wilds. And by looking at them you’d never know how awfully high hallas can really be”.   
With that she smiled, with a look he couldn’t read, and then turn. She approached the stone walls, took a breath, and started to climb.  
The whole group held their breaths. And it wasn’t brief. The Inquisitor was quite the opposite of heavy, but the wall was high and these days she wasn’t precisely used to riding hallas. Or anything.   
Finally, Assan reached the top of the wall and landed down. She sighed first of all. Next she looked for the lever to open the walls, and then felt the caress of a blade through her armor.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Worry not, this short chapter develops in the next, already updated. Enjoy!


	5. Fourth part: fail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like every plan, it can fail.

Harding held a blade and moved reaaaaally slowly.   
So slowly Cullen began to think a Blight would fall upon them before they could meet up with Assan and his soldiers inside the fortress. But he knew how effective stealth could be. He never tired of seeing Leliana and her web find out secrets and paths strength would never subdue. So he awaited, moving slowly at Harding’s peace, with his heart pounding in his chest, more than ready to strike, fearing the now open gates would close any second now. But, surprisingly, they reached the entrance. As silent as they could, they went in.   
The small fortress was built in the middle of two hills, in a rift in the stone some spell created many ages ago, as Dorian claimed the first day. Magic still lingered in the air, in the rocks, subtle but there, Assan added.  
At first, Cullen thought that was why he felt so light–headed, as if his feet were lighter than never before.  
Assan stood in the middle of the field, smiling, seductive. Cullen stopped his own sword in the middle of its way out of the scabbard. He looked at her.  
Then the field burst into fire.  
Before Cullen could catch his breath the smoke lifted and Assan was still there, like a statue, smiling. But her eyes moved to the stairs that led to the top of the walls.  
They heard someone stumble, and as Cullen turn he saw Assan, another Assan, hurt, with a hand pressing her side and the other eaten by flames.  
“Don’t you dare touch him, demon” she screamed with hatred.  
The smiling Assan grinned widely and turned towards him.  
“Oh? Him? Only him I must not touch?”  
Cullen didn’t move.  
It was more than his fear of demons. It was the scent in the air. It was the look on those eyes. It was the last inch of his body, possessed, crying that it really was Assan talking.  
“Why shouldn’t I?” She moved a step towards Cullen, still smiling. Assan’s sparkly eyes seemed to lighten up, just happy to meet his gaze. “He is beautiful, isn’t he? And you lured him? With your exoticism, the odd air around you. That of yours is a pretty surface. Seductive. But what would you do once the surface stops shining?”  
Cassandra took a step and both Varric and Dorian held her.  
“Why?” she yelled. “It’s a demon! We should slay it!”  
“Do you think we are blind, Seeker?!”  
“The Fade is thin here, Cassandra! Slay it, and it may take Cullen to its domain before we could react!” Dorian yelled too. Harding swallowed.  
“This is just not right.”  
“Oh, Cullen, if she could only be at the height of your thoughts.” Assan was now at his reach, so she caressed his skin. “The knife ears, the rabbit, the child of the green. You could never understand her tongue, not a single word, yet that is her tongue. But she doesn’t belong to that world either, not anymore, so enclosed, so pride of its tales. How could she feel like one of them after all of this?” Assan tilted her head. “Too elven for the human world, and way too human for any elf”.  
She pressed her forehead against his. There was someone screaming something that barely reached his ears, crying out his name, begging him not to listen. Cullen just smiled at her beloved face, inhaling her scent.  
“We could escape the real world forever. We could be more than it”. Assan caressed his cheek. She wasn’t prone to that. He liked it. “Never another gossip. Never another story about a human and an elf who never could be happy in this world. You and me, the me you deserve”.  
And Cullen’s dagger stick in Assan’s stomach.  
For a second, Cullen’s heart yelled in pain seeing that betrayed look on her eyes, asking him why. Those were her eyes. Without a question.   
Then the demon shapeshifted and a more powerful, threatening eyes emerged. Cullen jumped back. Dorian’s magic unleashed, surrounding the demon, who cried in pain. The four of them attacked it.  
Cullen was no longer a templar, but he had a considerable amount of experience, as did the others. The demon was no threat to then, now that Cullen has emerged of the enchantment, at least. They fought firmly until it couldn’t resist its wounds.  
The demon finally vanished. Cullen dropped his sword and looked for Assan.  
By then she was standing in the last part of stairs. She saw the demon vanish, she sighed, and she collapsed.  
When her hand lifted from her side there was so much blood Cullen felt his heart stop. Cassandra was the first one to reach her. She removed the part of shirt without concern, Varric gave her a bottle of water in silence, she cleaned the injury.  
“It’s not too deep. Do not worry.” Cassandra smiled at Cullen. “She is just exhausted.”  
“She can still hear you.” Assan rested a hand on her forehead. “Yes, I am fine. I casted that explosions without a staff.”  
“Those details of yours. You keep making my tales hard to believe, Inquisitor.” Varric laughed softly. She returned him a smile.  
“Are you okay? All of you? Desire demons are... hurtful.”  
Cullen didn’t say anything and Assan didn’t ask. What a way to be in the open.  
“We are fine, it couldn’t deceive us.” Dorian smiled widely. “Now we know why these templars were so focused on defeating us. Turns out they had help”.  
“There will be no problem in defeating them now. Cullen’s men can handle that.” Cassandra helped her to stand. “We go home”.


	6. Last: go back home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to go back home and heal the wounds. If possible.

That night, Assan was closer to the bonfire. The cold of the knife, the cold of the demon’s voice, just made them freeze. The demon was not attacking Cullen. It was attacking her, her fears and desires. She was having trouble to get warm since.  
“I never thought you and Cullen...”  
Assan looked at Harding blankly. She kept talking.  
“You know, you are a mage after all. He was a templar, a Knight–Commander”.  
Knight–Captain, officially. Assan smiled wryly.   
“Harding, today I need a little optimism in the world for me. I am so tired of being optimistic for it.”   
“Sorry, Inquisitor. It’s just... That’s gonna be tough”.  
“Add it to the list.”  
Cullen arrived in that moment. He looked at both of them for a moment, then seemed too embarrassed. Then managed again to face them.  
“Inquisitor, may I speak to you? Privately.” He added. Assan made a gesture to stand, then stumbled in pain. Both Cullen and Harding reached to her. Assan looked only at Cullen, silent, her huge eyes glowing in the gloom.  
“Yes, we need to talk, Commander” she said quietly.  
“Don’t move, Inquisitor, I’ll leave” Harding smiled briefly to Cullen and went away.  
He helped her sit again.  
“You don’t have to do that, you know” she whispered.  
“Do what?”  
“Look so embarrassed”.  
“I am not...” he sighed, and both of them just stayed there in silence for a while.  
“May I ask you something?”  
She looked at him, silently. There was something she feared, something that came to her thought by looking at him, Cullen noticed that much.  
“Go ahead”.  
“Is it true? That you are rejected by two worlds”. It took her a moment to understand what he meant.  
“The elven and the human?” she smiled wryly. “You saw the Dalish. You know I am not like them. And the humans...”  
Cullen thought about her gorgeous, huge eyes, her manners, the elven curses she still whispered now and then, but there was more to it. He thought about how she looked those days in the open, climbing, with comfort clothes, speaking dalish, riding horses, missing the hallas. He wasn’t used to that side of her. That was more important.  
“You know what they think, how they think.” She kept talking, her eyes in the ground. “Your ears hear as good as mine.”  
“You are still Dalish” he said. She shook her head.  
“Whatever I was before, I am now the Inquisition.” their eyes met.   
For some reason, there was still fear in her gorgeous eyes.  
“Do you fear me now?” she spouted, anxious. Cullen blinked without a word for a second.  
“What? Me?”  
“The explosion.” now she wriggled her fingers. “I try not to look like that, but I was desperate to protect you, and without a staff, magic just... And it was right in front of your eyes. And I know that demons... what they made you”.  
“This had nothing to do with the Circle...”  
“And I notice how you look at me now. After these days”  
She paused. Then she sighed and faced his golden eyes.  
“Cullen, this is what I truly am. Not the fancy clothes, not the comfy bed, not the Inquisition and its protocol or politics. Not that side”.  
Cullen said nothing at first.  
“You think you fooled me? That you seduced me?”  
He grabbed one of her hands. She tensed.  
“That’s what the demon said.”  
“When demons say such things, it’s because they are attacking. They know that is how you feel.”  
Assan hesitated.   
“I don’t know how you could love me without seeing me outside that dust and grey. Without the green and the wind.”  
Then Cullen pushed their foreheads together and her voice went silent.  
“I can see how your eyes bright when you come back.”   
She opened her eyes.  
“I am not blind. I know what you are, who you are. And that is what I love, that is you, half dalish, half not. You have shaped both our worlds, Assan. You have a rare heart. I feel so delighted to share a part of its glow”.  
She burst into laughs before touching his lips with hers, his hair with her naked fingers.  
“Good... Because it seems now we’re in the open”.  
Cullen growled theatrically.  
“Just when I thought the gossip of the soldiers would go unproven...”   
“Is it a problem?” she sounded ticklish. “To you?”  
“Not as long as it isn’t to you. You are all I need to be okay with whatever the world may throw at us”.  
She smiled widely and he already started to miss that wide smile when they went back to Skyhold, to the dust and the grey.  
“You are so precious, Cullen” she whispered. He answered with a long, soft kiss beneath the starry night.


End file.
